Summer always seemed so limitless and free with endless days of wonderful possibilities until boredom set in around August. One way my sister L and I combated this boredom, with or without friends and relatives, was by playing board and card games. Recall a time before the Wii or any other game station…forget about computer games and the myriad array of hand-held devices with their mind-numbing, colorful games (although I did own a super cool Merlin in the ‘70s). I’m talking about good, old fashioned cardboard and plastic board and card games. Let the games begin!
Every summer L and I would start it off by a marathon game of Monopoly which we began enthusiastically and abandoned before mid-July. This pastime may have begun during one of the first rainy days when we couldn’t go to the pool or beach. We loved that tradition until we hated it…or each other.
Stuck with only the two of us, we played all kinds of games: Uno, Bingo, Yahtzee, Trivial Pursuit, Life, Old Maid, Clue and the list goes on. This resulted in hysterics or fights with the hurling of cards or game pieces or staring contests of more boredom when a game was played out.
We played Old Maid together, and I fervently hated losing that game! Being deemed the Old Maid was worse than any curse or insult shot at me because it meant I would end up old, ugly and alone. In protest, I ripped up the poisonous card and shoved it between couch cushions. Another time I hid the card (from a new pack), thereby deterring the game from reaching its conclusion and protecting us both from unmarried damnation. [Read more...]
